
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
January 5, 2009
/ 9 Teves 5769
Hiding behind the race card
By
Clarence Page
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
White guilt has exhausted itself, President-elect Barack Obama once wrote. Well, not so fast. His former opponent U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush apparently thinks there's still some life left in it.
What else can we make of the South Side Chicago Democratic congressman's backing of Roland Burris, who has been appointed to Obama's old Senate seat by a governor who is out on bail.
Dreamers hoped Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would go quietly from office after his Dec. 9 arrest for federal corruption charges that include his allegedly trying to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Rush, a former leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, used to sound as troubled by that as other Democratic lawmakers did, until Blagojevich named Burris, a former Illinois attorney general and fellow African American. Then things changed. In a Blagojevich news conference to announce Burris, Rush said he was supporting Burris essentially for one reason: the Senate needs a black member and even the scandalized Blago's man will do.
I found it curious that Rush's concern for black representation did not stop him from endorsing a white Obama opponent, Blair Hull, for the seat in the 2004 primary. But of course, four years earlier, Rush became the only man so far to beat Obama, when the young state senator tried to unseat the popular incumbent. Rush later endorsed Obama's presidential bid, being savvy enough to know which way the political winds were blowing.
Yet here he was, boosting Burris by playing to white guilt. He used the Senate's current lack of any black members as a one-size-fits-all justification for the body to accept Burris and "not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer."
But, why not? This fight isn't about Burris. It's about Blagojevich. The Democrats who control the Senate are not rejecting all black appointees. They only want to reject anyone who is appointed by this governor, regardless of their race, gender or whatever. Considering the way this governor appears to have embarrassed his office, according to the federal prosecutor's court-ordered wiretaps, that's a worthy goal for the senators to have.
Yet on CBS's "The Early Show," Rush pressed further. He compared plans by Senate Democrats to block Burris to white governors in the Jim Crow south who blocked the desegregation of public schools and colleges. Never have images from the bad old days of white bigotry sounded so breathtakingly inappropriate, especially when they come so soon after the election of the nation's first black president.
Is this where the revolution has come? Has the black community become the last refuge for scalawags like Blagojevich, whose approval ratings had fallen to only 13 percent in a Chicago Tribune poll even before his arrest?
As a fellow African American, I resent that notion, and I don't appear to be alone. Secretary of State Jesse White, a black Democratic friend of Rush and Burris, nevertheless is refusing to certify Burris' appointment in what he called "a moral decision," even if it fails to hold up in court.
Rep. Danny Davis, another African American House member from Chicago, revealed that he had been asked by Blagojevich and turned it down, saying that any appointee from the governor would be too tainted to serve.
Sure, it might be purely coincidental that Blagojevich happened to pick two black candidates in a row. Or maybe he feels a sincere liberal urge to make Obama's desk a "black seat." And maybe there really is a tooth fairy. More likely, the message to Burris is this: You're getting played.
Blagojevich undoubtedly hopes white senators will bow to the possibility of a black backlash in Burris' favor. That would have been more likely had Obama not held fast to his call for Blagojevich to step aside. Obama paid proper respect to Burris' public service, which includes his election to state comptroller as the first black officeholder to be elected statewide. Nevertheless, he asked that no one accept an appointment that was not "free of taint and controversy."
Having covered Rush as a reporter and commentator since his Black Panther days, I like him. I have admired his transition from beret-wearing militant to suit-and-tie South Side Chicago congressman. I like Burris, too. His only sins until now, as far as I know, have been a political tone-deafness that has prevented him from getting past the primaries in one run for the Senate, one for Chicago mayor and three times for governor.
But if this dustup over Burris is to become a battle for the hearts and minds of black Americans with Rush on one side and Obama on the other, I'm betting on Obama. If Burris wants to be a senator, let him run for it. Again.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Clarence Page's column by clicking here.
Archives
© 2007, TMS
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|